I promised to get back regarding the cost of re-opening Nicollet, building housing, and adding commercial development at Nic-Lake. Sorry it took me a few days but there was too much fun stuff to do in Whitter this weekend--a bikeride on the greenway, CDs at the Fetus (the new Nora Jones disc is awesome!), a visit to the MIA (the air condition was nice), etc....
Here are the facts. I'll break my summary into three sections, since the Nic-Lake project is really three different projects: re-opening Nicollet, a commercial development, and a housing development. COST TO RE-OPEN NICOLLET Sherman projects it will cost $4.6 million to build the roadway and a new bridge over the greenway. The land on which the new roadway will be built will cost $1.5. This is in the City's Capital Long Range Improvement Plan for the year 2006. Sherman may try to set up some sort of bridge loan to move this up. Further the County will likely be taking up to 50 feet of the site for Lake Street widening, and Sherman thinks it will cost $2.5 million. I'll argue until I'm blue in the face that building the roadway is not subsidy to a developer. Further, Sherman hopes to get $2 million from the Met Council to foster transit oriented development. That certainly would be a subsidy. COST OF COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT The construction of the commercial buildings will cost $37.3 million, and the land on which it will sit will cost about $5.2 million. Sherman will pay for this with $34.8 million in Empowerment Zone bonds (federal bondin authority given to the EZ)(the bonds will be paid back), and the rest will be equity. Sherman hopes to use TIF to help pay for the structured parking. Why is assistance needed for constructing structured parking? See my post from last fall when their was a discussion about building a Lunds downtown. COST OF RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT Construction of the approximately 300 units will cost $50.6 million. You read that right, the proposed housing development is larger than the proposed commercial development. Of that, $16.7 is from housing bonds, $3.9 is from a TIF supported mortgage, $7.7 is from the Affordable Housing Incentive Fund (County HRA), and $1.1 is from MHFA or the federal government. The rest will be equity. DEVELOPERS EQUITY In all Sherman proposed to kick in $28.5 million in developer's equity. SUMMARY Jim Graham said, "The way to restore that trust is to be right up front with the cost. What a refreshing concept - 'Here is what you are going to get and here is what you are going to pay.'> Imagine,buying a car and having the dealer renegotiate the price upwards every year after you bought it." I hope I've begun to answer the public's questions about potential public investment at Nic-Lake. You'll see the only out of pocket expense proposed for the City is $6.1 to re-build Nicollet and buy the land on which the roadway will run. The rest comes from TIF or other levels of government. And I'll argue that redevelopment tools like TIF were created for areas in the empowerment zone areas like Nic-Lake, not for areas like I-494 and I-35W or for downtown office projects. One issue I take up with Jim Graham is that this proposal is not like a new car siting on a lot. The deal is in the concept phase right now, and Sherman is like a team of engineers building a concept car. It will take some more time to refine and finalize the product, let people "test drive it" (ok I'm torturing the analogy-I'll stop!). The point is we need more time to work on this thing. And components of it will certainly change. In sum, I appreciate that Citizens like Jim Graham are volunteering to be the "14th councilmember" in our City. We need more people like him. But I absolutely promise that Zimmermann, Lilligren, and Niziolek will turn the screws on us to get the best possible deal for the city. In fact, they already are. Hats off to them. That's why they got elected. And Sherman knows that they are not going to slide anything by this group, so there is no point in trying to be cute. We're going to let the sun shine on this deal. I hope we can get it done. Cheers, Dave Harstad Attorney for Sherman Whittier resident __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
